Urinary calcium excretion and its response to oral calcium loading in normal subjects and stone formers

Ten normal subjects (NS) and 28 stone formers (SF) underwent 1 and 2 gm. calcium loading test following three days of calcium restricted diet (400 mg/day). On 4th day first 24-hr. urine sample was collected. An additional 1 and 2 gm. of calcium (Calcium gluconate) was given orally on 5th and 6th day respectively and 24-hr. urine samples were collected on both the days. Before loading, all the NS had normal calcium excretion (<200 mg/day). Calcium loading caused hypercalciuria in 10% and 20% cases respectively. Among SF, 17.9% cases were already hypercalciuric and calcium loading increased it to 42.9% and 46.4% patients respectively. The results indicated that exogenous calcium had only limited capacity to increase urinary calcium and that the magnitude of rise was relatively higher in SF. The increased excretion in SF was primarily due to intestinal hyperabsorption of calcium.     

Serum lipids during pregnancy in relation to the risk of coronary heart disease

The serum lipid classes in 75 pregnant women (25 in each trimester) and 25 matched controls were investigated. The lipid classes studied were very low density lipoproteins (VLDLc), low density lipoproteins (LDLc), high density lipoproteins (HDLc), total triacylglycerols (Tg), phospholipids (PL) and total cholesterol (Tc). It was found that there is increase in HDLc during first trimester followed by decrease during second and third trimesters. All other lipid classed including Tc and PL showed a progressive increase. Analysis of data showed that Tc/HDLc ratio has an increasing trend with parity. LDLc/HDLc also showed similar correlation. The results of our study indicates that there is likely to be increased risk for CHD in multiparous women as predicted from serum lipid parameters.     

The attitudes of hong kong primary school principals toward integrated education

Positive attitudes of key stakeholders, such as school principals, towards a new policy are considered a necessary pre-requisite to implement any such policy. Hong Kong has recently formulated a policy that supports the integration of students with disabilities into regular schools. This study investigated the attitudes of Hong Kong primary school principals toward integration, with a view to determining if these school leaders are prepared to implement integrated education practices in their schools. A modified version of the School Principals’ Attitudes toward Inclusion scale (Bailey, 2004) was used to collect data from participants. Based on the responses of 130 primary school principals, it was found that their attitudes toward integration were slightly negative. Principals who had less teaching experience and who were administering schools with smaller student enrolment were found to hold more positive attitudes toward integration. The variable of “having a family member or close friend with a disability” had a significant and positive effect on the principals’ attitudes toward integration.     

The impact of a teacher education course on pre‐service teachers' beliefs about inclusion: an international comparison

In this comparative study, the impact of two stand‐alone university courses on pre‐service teachers' attitudes, concerns and teaching efficacy to teach in inclusive classrooms is examined. Twenty‐eight pre‐service teachers (PSTs) from Australia and 60 PSTs from Canada completed a survey at pre‐ and post‐stages of the course. It was found that after completion of the course, Australian participants' attitudes improved, their concerns declined, and they became more confident in their ability to teach in inclusive classrooms. Similarly, Canadian participants' concerns declined and their teaching efficacy improved, but they became more apprehensive about teaching in inclusive classrooms. Relationships among the three variables (attitudes, concerns and teaching efficacy) were examined at pre‐ and post‐test stages for both cohorts to understand how they interacted within each of the two countries. Implications of the findings for teacher education are discussed.     

β-Adrenoreceptor Agonist Isoproterenol Alters Oxidative Status,Inflammatory Signaling,Injury Markers and Apoptotic Cell Death in Myocardium of Rats

Sustained high levels of circulating catecholamines are reported to induce cardiotoxicity. Isoproterenol (ISP), a synthetic catecholamine has been widely employed to induce myocardial injury, though the role of inflammation and apoptosis is not well established. This study was designed to investigate the underlying mechanism of oxidative damage, inflammatory signaling, cell death in ISP induced myocardial infarction in rats. Wistar albino rats were divided in two groups: group I (sham control) and group II (ischemic control). ISP (85 mg/kg, s.c.) was administered at an interval of 24 h to group II for two consecutive days. On day third, after 48 h of the first injection of ISP, blood was collected from retro orbital plexus of rat eyes to estimate the biochemical parameters. Glutathione (GSH) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were measured for antioxidant status. Similarly, malondialdehyde (MDA) was measured as an index of lipid peroxidation. Cardiac markers (SGOT, CK-MB, TropI and LDH) and pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, CRP and TNF-α) were also estimated in ISP-induced rats. At the end of experiments animals were sacrificed for histopathological studies. GSH and SOD showed significant decrease after ISP challenge as compared to sham (control) group (p < 0.01) while MDA level, increased significantly (p < 0.01). ISP, also increased the level of cardiac markers and markers of inflammation significantly (p < 0.01), which was further verified by histopathological studies of the heart tissues. The study confirmed that ISP causes detrimental changes in the myocardium by altering cardiac and inflammatory markers, which leads to severe necrosis. The deleterious effects produced by ISP substantiate its suitability as a novel animal model for evaluation of cardioprotective agents/drugs.     

The Role of 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D Deficiency in Iron Deficient Children of North India

Extensive data from animal and human studies indicate a role of vitamin D in erythropoiesis. Iron and vitamin D deficiencies are implicated with adverse health effects in children even if they are asymptomatic. The potential relationship between the two remains poorly understood. A cross-sectional study was performed in the period from 1st May 2012 through 30th April 2013 and subjects were classified into vitamin D deficiency (VDD), vitamin D insufficiency (VDI) and vitamin D sufficiency (VDS) groups according to their 25(OH) D levels. A total of 263 children were included in the analysis. Anaemia was present in 66 % of 25(OH) D deficient subjects compared with 35 % in vitamin D sufficient individuals (p < 0.0001). The association of breast feeding and development of VDD was also significant (p < 0.05). Serum levels of 25(OH) D were found lower in female sex and if the analysis was performed in the winter/spring season. Physicians should therefore assess vitamin D levels in all anaemic children and ensure adequate supplementation to prevent deficiencies.     

DNA-library assembly programmed by on-demand nano-liter droplets from a custom microfluidic chip

Nanoscale synthetic biology can benefit from programmable nanoliter-scale processing of DNA in microfluidic chips if they are interfaced effectively to biochemical arrays such as microwell plates. Whereas active microvalve chips require complex fabrication and operation, we show here how a passive and readily fabricated microchip can be employed for customizable nanoliter scale pipetting and reaction control involving DNA. This recently developed passive microfluidic device, supporting nanoliter scale combinatorial droplet generation and mixing, is here used to generate a DNA test library with one member per droplet exported to addressed locations on microwell plates. Standard DNA assembly techniques, such as Gibson assembly, compatible with isothermal on-chip operation, are employed and checked using off-chip PCR and assembly PCR. The control of output droplet sequences and mixing performance was verified using dyes and fluorescently labeled DNA solutions, both on-chip and in external capillary channels. Gel electrophoresis of products and DNA sequencing were employed to further verify controlled combination and functional enzymatic assembly. The scalability of the results to larger DNA libraries is also addressed by combinatorial input expansion using sequential injection plugs from a multiwell plate. Hence, the paper establishes a proof of principle of the production of functional combinatorial mixtures at the nanoliter scale for one sequence per well DNA libraries.     

On demand nanoliter-scale microfluidic droplet generation,injection, and mixing using a passive microfluidic device

We here present and characterize a programmable nanoliter scale droplet-on-demand device that can be used separately or readily integrated into low cost single layer rapid prototyping microfluidic systems for a wide range of user applications. The passive microfluidic device allows external (off-the-shelf) electronically controlled pinch valves to program the delivery of nanoliter scale aqueous droplets from up to 9 different inputs to a central outlet channel. The inputs can be either continuous aqueous fluid streams or microliter scale aqueous plugs embedded in a carrier fluid, in which case the number of effective input solutions that can be employed in an experiment is no longer strongly constrained (100 s–1000 s). Both nanoliter droplet sequencing output and nanoliter-scale droplet mixing are reported with this device. Optimization of the geometry and pressure relationships in the device was achieved in several hardware iterations with the support of open source microfluidic simulation software and equivalent circuit models. The requisite modular control of pressure relationships within the device is accomplished using hydrodynamic barriers and matched resistance channels with three different channel heights, custom parallel reversible microfluidic I/O connections, low dead-volume pinch valves, and a simply adjustable array of external screw valves. Programmable sequences of droplet mixes or chains of droplets can be achieved with the device at low Hz frequencies, limited by device elasticity, and could be further enhanced by valve integration. The chip has already found use in the characterization of droplet bunching during export and the synthesis of a DNA library.     

Colored polydimethylsiloxane micropillar arrays for high throughput measurements of forces applied by genetic model organisms

Measuring forces applied by multi-cellular organisms is valuable in investigating biomechanics of their locomotion. Several technologies have been developed to measure such forces, for example, strain gauges, micro-machined sensors, and calibrated cantilevers. We introduce an innovative combination of techniques as a high throughput screening tool to assess forces applied by multiple genetic model organisms. First, we fabricated colored Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micropillars where the color enhances contrast making it easier to detect and track pillar displacement driven by the organism. Second, we developed a semi-automated graphical user interface to analyze the images for pillar displacement, thus reducing the analysis time for each animal to minutes. The addition of color reduced the Young''s modulus of PDMS. Therefore, the dye-PDMS composite was characterized using Yeoh''s hyperelastic model and the pillars were calibrated using a silicon based force sensor. We used our device to measure forces exerted by wild type and mutant Caenorhabditis elegans moving on an agarose surface. Wild type C. elegans exert an average force of ∼1 μN on an individual pillar and a total average force of ∼7.68 μN. We show that the middle of C. elegans exerts more force than its extremities. We find that C. elegans mutants with defective body wall muscles apply significantly lower force on individual pillars, while mutants defective in sensing externally applied mechanical forces still apply the same average force per pillar compared to wild type animals. Average forces applied per pillar are independent of the length, diameter, or cuticle stiffness of the animal. We also used the device to measure, for the first time, forces applied by Drosophila melanogaster larvae. Peristaltic waves occurred at 0.4 Hz applying an average force of ∼1.58 μN on a single pillar. Our colored microfluidic device along with its displacement tracking software allows us to measure forces applied by multiple model organisms that crawl or slither to travel through their environment.     

Semen characteristics: Advancement in andrological assessment

Progress in diagnosis of infertility, has been dramatically increased during the past decades with changes occurring in virtually all aspects of infertility research, thus providing innovative diagnostic testing and sophisticated instrumentation for improved management and treatment of infertility. There are about 50% of infertile couples who are suffering because of male infertility. Semen examination is a basic investigation for these infertile couples. It not only reveals the quantity and quality of sperm but also the quality of the seminal plasma, which is essential for normal sperm function. In this review, the recent advancement in investigation procedures has been analyzed which are very important in clinical practice to (a) evaluate the sperm fertilizing ability (Acrosin, aniline blue, HOS), (b) characterization of male accessory sex glands secretions (Fructose, alpha-glucosidase, PSA) and (c) the management of azoospermic patients. It is believed that use of such diagnostic procedures will facilitate wide selection of patients for whom an effective therapy might be then possible.